Verse by verse teaching - Daniel 2:12-15 "Fast and Furious"

If you take God's precious Word and turn to Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 2, God willing we'll be expounding verses 12 through 15 this morning. Daniel chapter 2, verses 12 through 15. The title of the message this morning is "Fast and Furious." "Fast and Furious." In the previous verses last week we saw where the false religious leaders of Babylon could not tell the king his dream and the interpretation thereof as he required. The king was seeking truth from God and the religions of this world could not provide the answers that he sought. Look now in your text for this cause or because of this. The king was angry and very furious. You might want to underscore the word angry and furious. Let's pray. Father we thank you for your precious Word. God I pray your Holy Spirit Lord will teach your Word to these people and anyone who is listening online now or in the future in Jesus' precious name. Amen. For this cause the king was angry and very furious. You know this is a common response that people have who've grown frustrated. Frustrated when seeking answers from religious authorities. They get angry. They get bitter at religion. I've had many people tell me that they have become angry at God because they want to know the truth but God has not given them the truth they are seeking. That was Nebuchadnezzar right here. That was Nebuchadnezzar. Recently I received an email from someone that I've been trying to help online. I want to read to you a portion of that email. He said quote, "To say I'm very angry at God is an understatement. At church today they played a dramatic testimony on the screen which ticked me off and brought me more anger. The man of the testimony said he was just living life though a bit empty and gave little regard to a relative who often talked of Jesus. After realizing how he wanted change he said some words to God asking for this inner change. And suddenly all this change started happening shortly after. With new desires. Sin had no pull on him anymore. Peace and a reason for living etc. So why not for me he said. It didn't happen for that man. He's seeking, he says, mumbles some words to God. I'm looking for change. I want change. And suddenly he has new desires and sin has no more pull on him and he has a peace and reason for living. How come God's not giving that to me he said. Like Nebuchadnezzar this man is angry at God. But like Nebuchadnezzar he is angry for unrighteous and irrational reasons. I'll repeat that again. Like Nebuchadnezzar this man is angry at God. And perhaps you've been in that situation. You've been angry at God before. I plan on putting this message on YouTube and a lot more of my messages on YouTube in the future to help people who are struggling with salvation. Perhaps you've been angry at God. Perhaps you're angry at God right now. But this man like Nebuchadnezzar is angry at God for unrighteous and irrational reasons. Salvation isn't God giving us some inner change when we ask Him to. Salvation is God giving His only begotten Son on the cross to die for us. Salvation is not about change. It's about exchange. Not God changing me from within but God exchanging His Son in my place. Salvation is God giving His only begotten Son on the cross for us. The answer to salvation is Jesus and His cross. The answer to Nebuchadnezzar's dream as we'll see in the future, in a future message, is also Jesus and His cross. The man who wrote me was looking for inward change. The king in our story was looking for worldly wisdom. And they were both angry at God because they weren't getting the answers they anticipated. Reminded me, Brother Shepherd, when I was studying this, I didn't put in my notes, but reminded me, was it Naaman, was his name, right? When the prophet said, "Go wash and you'll come back out of the river Jordan and your leprosy will be gone." And he goes, "Ahh!" He got so upset. I just knew he was going to lay his hand on me and call the name of his God. He had all this drama invented in his mind of how things were going to go down. And then when God tried to answer his request, he got mad at him because it didn't go down his way. Fast and furious, irrational and unrighteous anger at God. They were both angry at God because they weren't getting the answers they expected. They both became disenchanted with God because they felt He was being unfair by not giving them the answers they expected. Here's the kingdom truth for you this morning. God will never endorse false beliefs to pacify angry people. God will never endorse false beliefs to pacify angry people. Truth doesn't come to an angry heart. Truth comes to an humble heart. You remember old Jonah? I'm intrigued with the book of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet who in the four chapters of his story never learned the truth about the goodness of God's grace. A prophet who always spoke God's Word, but he never learned the truth about the goodness of God's grace. Do you know why? Anger. He had an angry heart. Jonah was angry at God because God wouldn't come around to his way of thinking. You know, people are like that. Because the people of Nineveh repented, God had mercy on them. And then that made Jonah angry because he felt, well, God should have overthrown that wicked city of Nineveh. Nineveh, though, was more righteous than Jonah. Why? Nineveh came around to God's way of thinking. Jonah chapter 4, verse 1 through 4, it says, "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord and said, 'I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying? Or isn't that what I told you, God, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, or that's why I ran away from you. For I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful.'" Oh, boy, that's terrible, isn't it? I like that's some kind of insult. "Slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord..." Now here's Jonah praying. "Therefore now, O Lord, I beseech thee, my life, take, I beseech thee, my life from me. For it is better for me to die than to live." What a miserable attitude. But you know what? There's people like that today. Or just let me die. I would rather die than to live in the center of your will. I'd rather die in my unrighteous anger than live in the way you think things should be done. Verse 4, "Then said the Lord, 'Doest thou well to be angry?'" Jonah, are you right to be mad at me? Think about it, Jonah. You know how the book of Jonah ends? It ends with poor old Jonah getting angry at God again. God made a gourd. It grew up. It shaded Jonah, the vegetation thereof. It gave Jonah a little shade in that heat. And then God caused the gourd to die. He was trying to teach Jonah a lesson. And Jonah got angry at God again. And in Jonah 4, 9, God said to Jonah, "Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?" And Jonah said, and he said, "I do well to be angry even unto death. I do well to be angry till the day I die." The book of Jonah ends two verses later, with Jonah apparently never learning the lesson God was teaching him. Wouldn't that be something if that was your last words? "I'm just fine being angry, God, until I die." Wouldn't that be some way to go, angry at God? Jonah said, "I do well to be angry even unto death." Some people would rather die in anger than humble themselves and learn from God. That's a fact. Here's a kingdom truth. Unrighteous anger prevents righteous instruction. Unrighteous anger prevents righteous instruction. You can't learn from God by having a bad attitude about Him. The only way to learn from a teacher is if you assume that teacher knows more than you. If not, why take their class? I had a lady come to the Genesis of Jesus class one time, before she got mad and left. I wouldn't let her go up and down the aisles passing out money to each other while she sang. Money to everybody. And she let me know why she was coming to my Genesis of Jesus class. I have a lot of people thank God that after the class, "Oh, I'm learning so much. Thank God for this. Thank God for wanting to learn from the Word." But she let me know the reason she was coming is to make sure that I believe like she did. She already had the answers, you understand. She already knew everything being taught. She was just checking up on me. That's putting yourself in a position of saying, "You can't teach me anything. I already know." A person with that kind of attitude, they're sunk. Their ship is already sunk. And a person with the kind of attitude that they already have set up in their mind, how life should work, how religion should work, how salvation should work, how the Christian life should work, and then it doesn't work out the way they imagine it should be, and then they get angry at God. And this morning when we were learning about the tabernacle next door, you know what God kept telling Moses? "You be sure to make it according to the pattern I showed you." "Make it according to the pattern I showed you." These people are making their own tabernacle and they're getting mad because God's not moving into it. That's what's happening. That's what's happening. God will never pacify unrighteous anger by giving an untruth to that person. Instead of humbling himself and asking God for help, Nebuchadnezzar acted out of anger, look back in your text, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. You know, this is the world's way of dealing with religious disappointment. They throw the baby out with the bathwater. This is the world's way of dealing with religious disappointment. People have a bad experience in a false church or with false Christians, and in their anger, they decide to do away with organized religion. Notice the word "all." The word "all." Commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had spoken to some of the wise men of Babylon, and then based on his experience with some, he decided to destroy all. Is that rational? That's not rational at all. If you go to one bad doctor, do you say, "Well, I'll never go to another doctor again." We don't do that. But that's what he did. Fast and furious. Making these quick, irrational, angry decisions. That's the way some people treat religion. That's how the devil works, you see. The devil uses counterfeit religions to disenfranchise people, or give them a feeling of disenfranchisement. He'll use a counterfeit religion, hoping to disenfranchise people, hoping they will become disgruntled with a false religion, and then angrily dismiss the truth that God wants them to hear on account of the lie they've once been told. I know people like that. Do you? Maybe you do. That's what almost happened to Nebuchadnezzar. Almost. God was merciful. Thank God He didn't let that happen to Nebuchadnezzar. But had Nebuchadnezzar had his way, that's what would have happened. Instead of getting angry at the false teachers, Nebuchadnezzar got angry at religion altogether. And if you're listening this morning, and that's something that you're going through, you know someone who's going through that, this is a mistake, and this is why God gives us these stories in His Word. Verse 13, "He got angry at religion altogether," verse 13, "and the decree went out," or his command went forth, "that the wise men should be slain." Off with their head. Nebuchadnezzar was taking the idea of rejecting organized religion to a whole new level. Kill them all. All the wise men. Not just the ones he had spoken to, but all the wise men. I tell you what, had God allowed me to make that mistake, I would have never became a Christian. Man, I was disenfranchised. But I didn't write off religion because I'd been told wrong by some people. I knew truth was out there somewhere. And I wanted to find it. And I thank God He didn't let me make that mistake. I would have never come to know the truth of the gospel because I had to wade through a lot of false teaching to get to the truth of Jesus Christ. In a fast and furious decision, the king commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon, look back in your text, "and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain." That's the devil's way of doing things. The wise men of Babylon, they worship false gods. Daniel and his fellows, they worship the one true God. Nevertheless, Daniel and his fellows were considered to be one and the same as the worldly wise men of Babylon. You see how the devil works? He gets people to get angry, to get disenfranchised at one false teaching. And I'm not saying, you know, Buddhism. I'm not saying Hinduism. I'm not saying Islam. I'm not saying anything like that I'm talking about. It could be in a Baptist church. You have false religion in a Baptist church. And you get disenfranchised with it. And the next thing you know, you write off all Baptist churches. Or you write off all Christian churches. Just write them completely off. People make a big mistake by lumping truth together with lies. You know what the word "understanding" means? When you look at the word "understanding" in the Bible, in the Old Testament, I love it. I love that word "understanding" in the Hebrew. It has the idea of being able to unravel and distinguish. To take things apart, unravel and distinguish them. I recently bought a couple of more fruit trees from my house. Man, I'm running out of space to plant things, but I love planting things. And I bought these two pawpaw trees. Y'all ever heard of pawpaw trees? Yeah. And they came very cheaply wrapped. This bare root system. I'd rather have them in a pot, but they came bare root. And they packaged them together in the same package. And then they put a bunch of tape around it and put it in a box. Well, when I get it, I've got to cut all this tape off. And I've got to gingerly undo the plastic and the tape. And they've been riding in this FedEx or UPS. They come in both kinds of trucks. But they've been riding for so long in there. And they've been packed together so tight. All those little roots, guess what happened? They're all stuck together. There's hardly any root there to begin with that you have to work with. And you know what I had to do? I couldn't be rash. If I just went like that, I could have torn the tree. I had to carefully distinguish one from the other. This belongs to this tree. This belongs to that tree. Had to be careful. I couldn't be fast and furious. I'd lost both trees. And when it comes to religion, when it comes to truth, the devil wants to tangle things up and package everything together like that. And it's in understanding is where God enables us to say, "No, wait a minute. I'm going to seek this out. And I'm going to start unraveling the bad from the good, the true from the false." Thank God, you know that's how God handles us. Did you know that Jesus described His return as separating wheat from chaff and tares from wheat? As separating a big net? You know, Jesus described the gospel being like a big drag net in the ocean. And when the drag net comes up, you may be trying to catch tuna. And you've got all these little slimy, wiggly things in there and squid and everything else that you didn't want to catch. What do you do? You just say, "Well, forget that net." Just throw the net over? No. You separate the catch. And that's the way Jesus described His second coming. He's going to separate the catch. Because the gospel, the church of Jesus Christ, it draws all kinds of weirdos into it. Right? It draws all kinds of hypocrites, all kinds of charlatans into it. But thank God, He doesn't act fast and furious with His church. He loves us. He's going to guard His redeemed. And He's going to separate them from those who have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have to be the same way. Would we want God to treat us that way? People make, again, a big mistake by lumping truth together with lies. Nebuchadnezzar was acting in haste and anger rather than wisdom and prudence. He was burning down the bank because somebody on the street had given him a $20 counterfeit bill. Proverbs 18, 13 says, "He that answereth a matter before he hearth it, it is folly and shame unto him." He had even heard Daniel and his fellows out. He knew them. He could have said, "You know what? I'll tell you what. Y'all couldn't handle it. Hey, y'all bring Daniel and his fellows up here. Let's see what they have to say." No, he didn't do that. He felt disenfranchised and in his anger he felt, "Forget it!" And he felt righteous in the decision he made. And it was folly and a shame unto him because he answered a matter before he heard it. Nebuchadnezzar should have heard Daniel and his fellows before commanding to destroy them. I, in my own experience, knew there was a God and I was willing to hear out all the religions that I might find the truth. Don't tune out every preacher because you've had a bad experience with one preacher. Don't tune out every preacher because you've had a bad experience with one preacher. The preacher you're slaying might have the truth that you're seeking. They saw Daniel and his fellows to be slain, verse 14, "Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom, underscore counsel and wisdom." Isn't that better than anger and fury? He answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. Daniel didn't answer the king's representatives with anger and fury. He answered them with counsel and wisdom. Now the word translated "counsel" here, it has the idea of careful, thought-out planning. Just like when I was untangling that, careful, thought-out planning. That's how he answered him. Now the word translated "wisdom" here, it's fascinating. Do you know what this word in the Hebrew literally means? Flavor. Something that tastes good. I mean when someone's about to cut your head off, it would be nice to have flavorful words, wouldn't it? Daniel didn't answer the king according to the king's error. The king's error was anger and fury. He answered the king according to his need. And that's how we have to deal with people, not according to their error, but according to their need. Instead of responding like King Nebuchadnezzar, instead of responding with a sense of emotion, he responded with a sense of reason. Instead of giving words of passion, he gave words of flavor. Now how can we have flavorful words? Have you ever had your heart set on a certain food? I mean you were really craving a certain food. Brother Doug, you crave everything. He's the original Mikey. He eats everything. But have you ever had your heart set on a particular food and for some reason, maybe the restaurant's out of it, maybe something happened and you just couldn't get it, and it just didn't satisfy you like what you had your heart set on. You see, words can be flavorful if we give people what they have their heart set on. When Nebuchadnezzar was looking for truth, his anger and fury was getting in the way of it. And Daniel gave flavorful words, gave words that would satisfy the desire, the taste that God had put in Nebuchadnezzar's mouth. You see, gave him words that would satisfy the taste that God had put in Nebuchadnezzar's mouth instead of giving him words of passion, he gave him words of flavor to satisfy what the king was craving. He was craving truth. And as I was meditating on this insightful passage in Daniel, I wrote that man back who was angry at God. And I told him, I paused from my sermon notes and I wrote him back. I said, "Thinking about your experience this morning as I was writing my sermon for this Sunday. It's so sad that you would let a false testimony cause you to become angry at God. That man's testimony about the inward change he claimed to have was nothing to do with the gospel. You based your anger at God on a doctrine of the devil. How sad. And in all of that angry, you somehow still stick with Christianity rather than Islam, Buddhism or some other religion. Why? Because deep down inside, you know it's true. Yet you keep making it more difficult than it is. You keep hoping to believe enough to make something happen. The spiritual fireworks you seek, the big change. It's as if you're saying, "Except I see signs and wonders, I will not believe." God's word is enough. Be satisfied to let the black ink on white paper which tells you what Jesus has done for you be your assurance of salvation regardless of your feelings or your flesh. That's counsel and that's flavorful if he's seeking truth. I hope he's not someone who says, "I do well to be angry even unto death." Daniel answered with reasoning and with flavor, verse 15, "And he answered and said to Arioch, the king's captain, 'Why is the decree so hasty from the king?'" That's a good question. Why is the decree so hasty from the king? How come you made this decision to cast away all religion based on one bad experience you had? Every one of us have run into people or have heard of people who had one bad experience in church. They got their feelings hurt and they say, "I'm done with it." And then anytime someone says something to them about God, they'll then tell the bad experience they had. And then those people go back and say, "Yeah, you know, he just had a bad experience in church." Well, whoop-de-doo. Jesus had a bad experience when he went to the temple too, didn't he? Jesus had a bad experience on the cross. He didn't give up on us. The devil wants people to hastily decide against religion. He wants people to respond with disgruntled anger. He wants us to think that we are somehow justified for denying God based on a bad experience we had in church. And aren't you glad God didn't deny man based on a bad experience he had with him in the Garden of Eden? Aren't you glad God doesn't deny us based on a bad experience he had with us? Anybody has ever had a bad experience with God? Not really. Here's a kingdom truth. Never make an eternal decision with a hasty heart. Never make an eternal decision with a hasty heart. Why is the king so hasty, Daniel asked. Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. He said, "Daniel, well, here's what happened. Here's what happened. The king had this dream. He called in some of his best people and they couldn't help him. So now he's done with religion and God willing, we'll continue this exciting story next week. He was done with religion, but thank God, God wasn't done with him. Father, thank you so much, dear Lord God, that when we, like Daniel, Father, react in our flesh, we act in anger. Lord, thank you that you respond to us, Lord. I love how you responded to Jonah. You responded to him, Lord, with counsel and wisdom. Doest thou well to be angry? You didn't blow back up at him. You were patient with him. You answered him not according, Father, to his error, but according to his need. You taught him a lesson of the gourd, whether he was willing to learn it or not. And Father, I pray, dear Lord God, that you'll help us to be humble, to have an humble heart that we might learn from you, an humble heart that we might learn from your servants, and not an angry heart, dear God, that puffs us up in pride and drives us away from the God who loves us and hinders us from learning your truth. God help us and we ask this in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.